Parents planned murder-suicide together

People have left flowers and other tributes by the Parkcreek Court house in San Diego's Skyline neighborhood where a family of four was found dead Tuesday in an apparent murder-suicide.
— John Gastaldo

People have left flowers and other tributes by the Parkcreek Court house in San Diego's Skyline neighborhood where a family of four was found dead Tuesday in an apparent murder-suicide.
— John Gastaldo

San Diego  A husband and wife planned the deaths of their two daughters and themselves, San Diego police said Wednesday, a day after three of their bodies were discovered in the swimming pool and one in the bathtub of their rented Skyline home.

“We have writings found in the home from each of the parents,” police Capt. Jim Collins said. “This event was probably planned by both of them. What role each played we are still trying to determine.”

Autopsies were performed Wednesday on Alfredo Pimienta, 44, his wife, Georgina, 36, and their daughters, Priscilla, 17, and Emily, 9.

Collins said investigators don’t know the sequence of how each died. The bodies of the father and the two daughters were found in the swimming pool, and the mother was in the bathtub.

Initially, police and fire officials said they all had drowned, but Collins said no cause of death has been determined. Officials are awaiting the results of toxicology tests, which could take six to eight weeks, he said.

Collins said he would not disclose what the parents wrote that led investigators to conclude both of them planned the murder-suicide. He said he wanted to protect the family’s privacy.

The couple was facing financial difficulties, Collins said, but he would not elaborate on what those were.

They owned a tow-truck business, Lightning Towing and Transport. The company’s business license with the city of San Diego was due to expire on May 31.

Priscilla was a senior at High Tech High School in Point Loma and was to graduate in June. Friends said she planned to attend Sonoma State University in the fall. Emily was a fourth-grader at Valencia Park Elementary School.

It was a nephew who discovered bodies in the swimming pool, Collins said. Alfredo Pimienta had called the nephew to come over and discuss business. Collins would not say when that call was made.

The nephew called 911 on his cellphone and firefighters and paramedics were dispatched about 6:40 a.m., said fire department spokesman Maurice Luque.

The four deaths shocked and bewildered friends and neighbors on the Parkcreek Court cul-de-sac where the family had lived since March 2010.

“It’s a mystery,” said Federico Francisco, who lives next door to the Pimienta family home. “They were quiet, easy-going.”

Prudencio De Los Reyes, a neighbor on the other side of the Pimientas, said he didn’t suspect anything was wrong with the family. But, he and his wife, Rosario, said they believed Alfredo Pimienta “looked worried,” last week, the way he paced up and down the street and didn’t engage in small talk like he usually did.

De Los Reyes said he noticed Pimienta cleaning a lot of rubbish and old household items out of the house and garage last week. He said he asked Pimienta if the family was moving out, and he said that he was just cleaning up.

The front yard of the family’s house on Wednesday was filled with old furniture and small household items, toys, some trash and dead palm fronds. A broken-down pickup, a second pickup and two Honda sedans filled the driveway. The flatbed truck Pimienta used in his business was parked down a side street.

Dolores Sandoval, of Paradise Hills, stopped by the house with her daughter to place a small potted flower on the doorstep. She said she didn’t know the Pimienta family, but felt sad over the tragedy.

“You don’t know what anybody’s thinking,” Sandoval said. “My heart went out to them. It’s awful. Why take the lives of their girls?”